Associating objects in databases by rate-based tagging

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention provide automatic systems and methods for associating objects in databases of a web site by rate-based tagging. The frequencies of users entering specific tag terms for objects stored in the databases of the web site are used to determine hard associations between objects and tag terms and between objects. When the frequencies of user tags exceed established thresholds, hard associations between objects and tag terms are established. When objects are identified or determined to have hard association with tag terms, the objects are determined to be more clearly associated with the corresponding tag terms. Therefore, they should be highlighted or featured in more prominent locations on web pages of the web site to increase users&#39; confidence in content of the web site. To identify hard-associated objects, more weights can be assigned to the hard-associated objects, which allows them to be more likely to be selected for display in prominent locations. In addition, objects that are determined to have hard associations with tag terms can also have hard associations with one another due to the common tag terms they share. The hard association relationship between objects can be displayed through links to associated objects when an object is selected for display.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/165,537 (Attorney Docket No, YAHOP054), entitled “Automated Systemand Method for Creating a Web Site Based on a Subject Using InformationAvailable on the Internet,” filed on Jun. 30, 2008, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/165,548 (Attorney Docket No. YAHOP052), entitled“Automated System and Method for Creating a Web Site Based on anEmerging Subject of Internet search,” filed on Jun. 30, 2008. Thisapplication is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______(Attorney Docket No, YAHOP055), entitled “Automated Tagging of Objectsin Databases,” filed on the same date as the present invention. Theserelated applications are incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an automated system and method thatsearches the Internet for information to create a web site, which allowsusers of the web site to create tags to objects in the databases of theweb site. More particularly, the present invention relates to utilizingthe frequency of user created tags to establish a definitive associationbetween two objects in the databases of the web site.

2. Description of the Related Art

Internet web sites are built to provide information and services to meetdemands of various Internet users. Internet web sites can provideinformation and services through, but not limited to, text, photos,videos, audio, and applications, such as games and interactive onlinetools. For example, some web sites provide transaction functions toachieve e-commerce goals. Web sites are built to achieve goals of ownersof the web sites. The exemplary goals include, but are not limited to,attracting potential buyers, building brands, introducing products,information exchange, social networking, etc. Web site content ispresented to users in web pages, typically written in Hyper Text MarkupLanguage (HTML), which are accessible via Hypertext Transfer Protocol(HTTP). The content of the web sites is typically stored in databases,which are used to create web pages handled by programs run on webservers.

Constructing (or building) a web site can consume a lot of time andresources, such as people, hardware, and software. Builders of a website need to decide what content is relevant and interesting to thetarget users. The builders also need to design the layout of the website, decide the type of software and hardware needed, place data indatabases, etc. After the web site is built, administrators are neededto maintain the opeation of the web site, such as adding new content tothe web site, deleting outdated, incorrect, or inappropriate contentfrom the web site, and to keep the hardware systems running, etc. Allthese activities consume resources and time. Further, informationrelevant and interesting to Internet users evolves at a very fast pace.Global trends and Internet user population also change constantly. Thus,Internet users demand updated and relevant content. If the content isnot provided, users may go to other sites that provide the content theydesire.

It is in this context that embodiments of the present invention arise.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide automatic systems andmethods for associating objects in databases of a web site by rate-basedtagging. The frequencies of users entering specific tag terms forobjects stored in the databases of the web site are used to determinehard associations between objects and tag terms and between objects.

When the frequencies of user tags exceed established thresholds, hardassociations between objects and tag terms are established. When objectsare identified or determined to have hard association with tag terms,the objects are determined to be more clearly associated with thecorresponding tag terms. Therefore, they should be highlighted orfeatured in more prominent locations on web pages of the web site toincrease users' confidence in content of the web site. To identifyhard-associated objects, more weights can be assigned to thehard-associated objects, which allows them to be more likely selectedfor display in prominent locations.

In addition, objects that are determined to have hard associations withtag terms can also have hard associations with one another due to thecommon tag terms they share. The hard association relationship betweenobjects can be displayed through links to associated objects when anobject is selected for display.

It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implementedin numerous ways, including as a method, a system, or a device. Severalinventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.

In one embodiment, a method for automatically generating a hardassociation of an object with a tag term entered by users for the objectof a web site is provided. The method includes receiving tag termsentered by users for objects of the web site and placing the receivedtag terms with corresponding objects in at least one database. Themethod also includes determining a criteria of hard association forobjects to establish hard associations with tag terms entered for thecorresponding objects. The method further includes processing data inthe at least one database of the web site to identify an object and acorresponding tag term that pass the criteria of hard association. Inaddition, the method includes automatically creating a database to storethe identified object and the corresponding tag terms that pass thecriteria of hard association.

In another embodiment, a method for automatically establishing a hardassociation between two objects through a common tag term and displayingthe hard association of the two objects in a web page of a web site isprovided. The method includes processing data in at least one databasestoring objects having hard associations with corresponding tag terms toidentify the two objects that have hard associations with the common tagterm and to define a hard association between the two identifiedobjects. The method also includes automatically creating a database tostore the two identified objects and the common tag term. When one ofthe two identified objects is selected for displaying on a web page ofthe web site, a link to the other object is displayed along with theobject selected.

In yet another embodiment, a system for automatically creating hardassociations of objects with corresponding tag terms entered by usersfor the object of a web site is provided. The system includes at least aserver for storing objects in the web site, and a server with analgorithm for collecting tag terms entered by users for objects in theweb site. The system also includes a server for storing databases ofhard associations of objects with corresponding tag terms entered byusers. Further the system includes a server for storing algorithm ofautomatically creating hard associations between the objects with thecorresponding tag terms.

Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent fromthe following detailed description, taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles ofthe invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be readily understood by the followingdetailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, andlike reference numerals designate like structural elements.

FIG. 1A shows an entry page of a portal for a user, in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1B shows an Entertainment entry page for a user, in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1C shows a Worlds entry page for a user, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1D shows the entry page of Movie Worlds, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1E shows an entry page for the Worlds site of Star Wars™, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1F shows a web page to access all photos in the Star Wars™ site, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1G shows a page with a selected photo, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2A shows a system for automatically creating a Worlds web site, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2B shows the components in a Worlds server, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2C shows a form that can be used by an administrator to create aweb site based on a subject, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2D shows a photo database in the photo storage of FIG. 2B, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2E shows a search result page for the search term “yoda,” inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A a table storing tags (or tag terms) for photos, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3B shows a table created for objects passing the hard associationcriteria with different tag terms, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 3C shows a table correlating objects having hard associations byhaving common tag terms, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 3D shows a web page displaying an object, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention

FIG. 3E shows a process flow for automatically creating a subject-basedsite, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3F shows a process flow for establishing hard associations forobjects and displaying objects with hard associations, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4A shows the components in a Worlds server, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4B shows different databases in the hard association databaseserver, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide automatic systems andmethods for associating objects in databases of a web site by rate-basedtagging. The frequencies of users entering specific tag terms forobjects stored in the databases of the web site are used to determinehard associations between objects and tag terms and between objects.

When the frequencies of user tags exceed established thresholds, hardassociations between objects and tag terms are established. When objectsare identified or determined to have hard association with tag terms,the objects are determined to be more clearly associated with thecorresponding tag terms. Therefore, they should be highlighted orfeatured in more prominent locations on web pages of the web site toincrease users' confidence in content of the web site. To identifyhard-associated objects, more weights can be assigned to thehard-associated objects, which allows them to be more likely to beselected for display in prominent locations. In addition, objects thatare determined to have hard associations with tag terms can also havehard associations with one another due to the common tag terms theyshare. The hard association relationship between objects can bedisplayed through links to associated objects when an object is selectedfor display. As used herein, the term “hard” as used in relation toassociations means that a link is established. The link is established,in one embodiment, when an object's association with a tag term passes athreshold, such as a certain number of users or a certain percentage ofusers considering the tag term being associated with the object. Undersuch a condition, the object can be considered to have a “hard”association with the tag term. Hard association can be defined throughthe content management system, such as by using a database to relate theobject to the title or subject.

As described above, web sites are created to meet demands of variousInternet users. One of the demands is to have a web site allow usersinterested in a particular subject to view information of the particularsubject, to interact with one another through information exchange (e.g.sharing photos, videos, music, etc.), and to discuss topics related tothe particular subject through tools (e.g. message boards, blogs,questions and answers, etc.).

For example, some movie series, such as Star Wars™, may have manydevoted fans. Fans of Star Wars™ see Star Wars™ movies, read articlesabout the stories and characters of Star Wars™, view photos and videosof Star Wars™, and play with Star Wars™ games and toys. Some fans evenjoin Star Wars™ conventions. These fans may actually crave more contentrelated to the movie series. The devotion may in fact make them expertsabout story plots and characters of the movie series, and other subjectsrelated to the movie series. These fans would be very interested inhaving a web site on the subject of “Star Wars™,” where they can readobtain and share information about Star Wars™, and meet other Star Wars™enthusiasts.

General portal sites, such as Yahoo!, or other entertainment-related,sports-related, or social-networking-related portal sites creates websites that interest Internet users. A web site with a theme (or subject)(e.g. Star Wars™) that is of interest of many people, would attract manyInternet users to the site. As discussed above, constructing (orbuilding) a web site can be very time and money consuming. Further,after the web site is built, administration is needed to maintain theoperation of the web site, such as adding new content to the web site,deleting outdated, incorrect, or inappropriate content from the website, and keep the hardware systems running, etc. All these activitiesrequire resources, such as paid administrators. Further, global trends,Internet user population, and information available on the Internetevolve at a very fast pace. Therefore, it would be desirable to have anautomated system and method for creating and maintaining a site of aparticular subject of interests to many people.

The figures and description below provide information regarding how anexemplary web site with a particular subject, such as “Star Wars™,”which is of interest to numerous Internet users looks like. Systems andmethods to automatically create such a web site are also provided. Othertypes of entertainment-based web sites can also be created with thesystems and methods described below.

The Star Wars™ web site can be categorized under various categories,such as entertainment or movie, in a portal, such as Yahoo!. In theexample here, the Star Wars™ web site is placed under “Entertainment”category in Yahoo!. FIG. 1A shows an entry page 100 of a portal, such asYahoo!, for a user, User-1, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention. A user, such as User-1, can access the entry page 100by type in the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the portal, such as“www.yahoo.com.” The web site described here belongs to a portal.However, the concept of the invention is not limited to create a website in a portal. The concept of the invention applies to creating anyweb site for users interested in a particular subject. The site iscreated to allow users to view information related to the subject, andto share (exchange) information.

In entry page 100, there is a search box 101 and a “Search The Web”button 102 near the top of page 100. User-1 can enter a search term,which can be a word or a phrase, in the search box 101 and push the“Search The Web” button 102 to initiate a search. In one embodiment, onthe left side of entry page 100, there is a directory field 105, whichincludes a list of directories with different subjects and links, suchas Auto link 106, Entertainment link 107, and Finance link 108, etc.Below the list of directories, there is a button 109 for “More Yahoo!Services,” which can be clicked to access additional service directorynot listed in the directory field 105. These directories are servicesprovided by Yahoo!. They include many subjects, such as auto,entertainment, finance, games, weather, maps, and jobs, etc. In themiddle of the entry page, there is a content field 110, which containsinformation for User-1 to view. On the right side of entry page 100,there is a field 115 with additional content and advertisements, User-1can click on the Entertainment link 107 to access information servicesrelated to entertainment provided by Yahoo!.

After User-1 clicks on the Entertainment link 107, an Entertainmententry page 120 for the Yahoo! Entertainment directory is opened (asshown in FIG. 1B), in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. The Entertainment entry page 120 includes a field 121 oflinks to different categories of entertainment, such as Music link 122,Movies link 123, TV link 124, Games link 125, Broadway link 126, andWorlds link 127, etc. The Music Link 122, when pressed, would take theuser, such as User-1, to a web page with information related to musicand music industry, and additional links to music-related subjects.Similarly, Movies link 123, TV link 124 and Games link 125 would takethe user to web pages related to movies, TV shows, and video games. TheWorlds link 127 would take the user to a web page with informationrelated to different “Worlds” created for different popular subjectsthat are related to the entertainment for online users. For example, thedifferent “Worlds” include web site for Star Wars™ movies, which isnamed as “The World of Star Wars™,” and web site for the movie“Titanic,” which is named as “The World of Titanic,” etc. TheEntertainment entry page 120 also include a field 128 of content andads, which has entertainment-related content and ads for User-1 to view.

When User-1 clicks on the Worlds link 127, a Worlds entry page 130 isopened. In the Worlds entry page 130, there are web sites created forusers based on different categories of entertainment, as shown in FIG.1C in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Entrypage 130 includes a directory field 131, which has a list of categorylinks, such as link to Movies category 132, and link to Music category133, etc. As mentioned, different sites are listed under differentcategories. For example, the site of “The World of Star Wars™” is listedunder the category of “Movie,” and can be accessed by pressing the linkto Movies category 132. On the left side of entry page 130, there is afield 135 of top Worlds sites with a list of most popular sites underthe “Worlds” category, such as Worlds-Site-1 136, Worlds-Site-2 137, andWorlds-Site-3 138, etc. In the middle of page 130, there is a field 139of content and ads, which contain content related the “Worlds,” and adsfor User-1 to view.

To find a “Worlds” site of a particular subject, such as “The World ofStar Wars™” site, User-1 can click on the link to Movies category 132.Alternatively, User-1 can click on the site link directly if the link tothe site is available on the front page, such as among the links for thetop Worlds sites in field 125. In the examples here, User-1 clicks onthe link to Movies category 132 to access an entry page of Movie Worlds140. FIG. 1D shows the entry page of Movie Worlds 140, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention. In page 140, there is afield 141 for top movie sites, which includes a list (with links) ofmost popular (top) movie sites under the Worlds section of Yahoo!Entertainment. In the example shown in FIG. 1D, the top sites for theMovies Worlds are “Movie Site 1,” and “Movie Site 2,” etc. To the rightof the field 141 for top movie sites, there is a field 144 for list ofWorlds sites related to movies. In one embodiment, in field 144 there isan area 145 of US (United States) Movie Sites, which includes links toWorlds sites for US movies, such as “Star Wars™” 146, “Indiana Jones”147, and “Wizard of Oz” 148, etc.

In field 144, there is also an area 149 for foreign Movie sites, whichincludes a list of Worlds sites related to foreign movies, such as“Foreign movie site 1,” “Foreign movie site 2,” etc. The two listings,US movies and foreign movies, are merely used as examples, othercategorization of Worlds sites related to movies are also possible. Forexample, the Worlds sites related to movies can be categorized by theperiod of years the movie is released, such as 1980s, 1990s, etc., bythe types of the movies, such as action, drama, and musical etc., or byalphabetical order of the titles, etc.

When User-1 clicks on the link to “Star Wars™” 146, an entry page 150for the Worlds site of Star Wars™ appears with the title of the pagebeing “The World of Star Wars™” as shown In FIG. 1E, in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention. On entry page 150, there is asearch box 101′, which allow User-1 to enter a search key word, whichcan be a word or a phrase. Next to the search box 101′ there is a searchbutton 102′, which, when pressed, allows User-1 to search for content inthe current “The World of Star Wars™” site. The content in the currentsite include photos, videos, discussion boards, etc. Below the searchbox, there is an area 151 for lead article of Star Wars™, which caninclude text and photos related to the lead article. In one embodiment,the lead article can be uploaded by a user of the site, such as by themost active user or by the user who has uploaded the most photos and/orvideos to the site, etc. In another embodiment, the lead article isassigned by an administrator of the site, Alternatively, other algorithmcan be used to select lead article, such as by highest votes receivedfrom users of the group, etc.

To the right of the lead article, there is an area 152 for one or moreadvertisements. In one embodiment, the advertisements are related toStar Wars™. For example, the advertisements can be for sci-fi (sciencefiction) movies, Lego Star Wars™ toys, or other merchandize related toStar Wars™, etc. In another embodiment, the advertisements target theusers of the Star Wars™ site. For example, the users might be mostlycollege-educated, and mostly male, etc.

Below the area 152 for ad(s), there is an area 153 for a number ofpopular photos related to Star Wars™. Area 153 is sub-divided into smallsections, such as section 155. Each section, such as section 155,contains a photo related to Star Wars™. Above the area of popularphotos, there is an “All” button 154. When the “All” button 154 ispressed, a page 170 to access all photos in the Star Wars™ site appear,as shown in FIG. 1F in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. In page 170, the search box 101′, search button 102′, and thead(s) area 152, that are similar to those on entry page 150, stillexist. Under the search box 101′, there is an area 171 with buttons forphotos under different categories. For example, the buttons ofcategories can include “Fan photos” 172, which allows access to photosuploaded by fans, “Popular” 173, which allows quick access to mostpopular photos, and “Official” 174, which allows access to photosuploaded from official source(s), such as from Lucasfilm Limited. Thebuttons of categories can further include “my photos” 175, which allowsaccess to photos uploaded by User-1, “Favorites” 176, which allowsaccess to favorite photos marked by User-1, and “contacts' photos 177,which allows access to photos uploaded and/or marked as favorites byother users, who are in User-1's contact list. Below the area 171, thereis a field 178 for photos, which is divided into a number of areas, suchas area 179. In each area, such as area 179, there is a photo, such as“photo 1” 180, and a title, such as “Title 1”, of the photo.

Below the field 178 for photos, there is an area 181 with links toaccess other pages of photos. For example, in area 181, there are linksto different pages, such as links to pages 2, 3, 4, 5, previous page,next page, first page and last page, etc.

Going back to FIG. 1E, area 153 has many sections, such as section 155,of photos. When User-1 clicks on a photo section, such as section 155, apage 190 with photo appears, as shown in FIG. 1G in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. Alternatively, User-1 can alsoclick on a photo, such as “photo 1” 180 of an area, such as area 179, inpage 170 to access a photo. When User-1 clicks on “photo 1” 180, a pagesimilar to page 190 with photo would appear.

Page 190 includes the search box 101 search button 102′, and the ad(s)area 152, that are similar to those on entry page 150. Below the searchbox, there is an area 191 that displays links to other photos, such asP-1, P-2, and P-3, that are related the photo 193 of this page. Photo193 is the photo in either section 155 or area 179, which has beenclicked by User-1. Next to the area 191, there is an area 192, whichcontains links, such as “Prev” for previous, and “Next” for next, toother pages of photos. At the center of page 190 is the photo 193,selected by User-1 Below the photo 193, there is a title field 194,which shows that the title of the photo 193 is “Yoda from episode 2”.Page 190 also includes a description field 195, which provide furtherdescription of the photo. Below the description field, there is an area196 listing the user who posts (or uploads) the photo 193 and the dateand time that photo 193 is posted. In one embodiment, area 196 includesa photo or an avatar of the user who posts photo 193. In the examplehere, the user who posts photo 193 is User-2. Further, page 190 includesa field 197 of the character of the photo. In this example, thecharacter is Yoda. However, this field is optional, since not all photosare related to characters of Star Wars™. In addition, page 190 includesa field 198 of tags, which lists the tags of photo 193. In the examplehere, the tags for photo 193 are “episode 2”, and “Yoda”.

Below the field 198 of tags, there is a button 182 for adding tag(s) byUser-1. There is also a “thumb-up” button 183 for the user, such asUser-1, to push if he/she thinks positive about the photo. There can bea total number of users who voted “thumb-up” for the photo. In theexample here, 7 users have voted “thumb-up” for photo 193. Next to the“thumb-up” button 183, there is a “thumb-down” button 184. Further,there could be a button 185 of “add to this world”, for users who havenot signed up to be a member (or a user) of “The World of Star Wars™” tobe become a member (or user). Users can push button 185 to become amember.

In one embodiment, there is an area 186 of comments on page 190. Thereis a box 187 that allows a user to enter comments. There is also a “postcomment” button 188 to be pushed after the user enters the comments inbox 187. In area 186 of comments, there also are a number of commentsposted by different users. For example, comment 189 is posted by User-A.An avatar of User-A is shown, with a comment (comment A) posted byUser-A, and the date and time the comment being posted are shown in area186. Further, on page 190, there is an area 200 of featured fans, whichshows the avatars of one or more fans of the current site. One of thefans can be placed at a more prominent spot with larger photo (oravatar) and name of the fan (or user) in area 200. In the example here,User-X takes the more prominent spot and two other fans are alsofeatured, in area 200.

In addition to all the features described above, an area 201 of relatedphotos can also exist on page 190. In the area 201 of related photos,photos (with links) related to photo 193 are displayed in sections, suchas section 202 in area 201. When a user clicks on the photo, which isalso a link, in section 202, a page similar to page 190 with the photowould appear. Photos related photo 193 are tagged with one or more tagterms of photo 193. Photo 193 is tagged with tag terms that include“episode 2” and “Yoda.” Therefore, any photo that is tagged with theterm “episode 2” and/or “Yoda” can appear in area 201. If there are morephotos than available sections, such as section 202 in area 201, linksor buttons to other pages with additional photos can be available (notshown) for the user to click. Further, there can be an area 203 forrelated videos. Similar to related photos, related videos can appear insections, such as section 204, in area 203. Related videos are videostagged with at least one tag term of photo 193.

On page 190, there also can be an area 205 for shopping, where merchantsdisplay items on sale or links to web sites that carry merchandises. Themerchandizes can be related to Star Wars™, Yoda, or other subjects thatthe merchants think a user, such as User-1, would be interested in. Inthe example here, Yoda statue and Star Wars™ DVD are for sale in area205. In the example shown in FIG. 1G, the photos of the merchandises areshown next to the brief descriptions of the merchandizes.

In addition, on page 190, there could be an area 206 of sponsored linksfor paying merchants or advertisers to place ads with links to web sitesthat offers products and/or services. In one embodiment, the productsand services displayed in the area 206 are related to photo 193 or toother subjects of Star Wars™. In the example shown in FIG. 1G, a DVD of“Episode 2”, and a toy of “2^(nd) episode Yoda” are for sale.

Going back to FIG. 1E, page 150 can also include an area 159 forfeatured photos, which are selected front all photos in the site. In oneembodiment, the featured photos are all centered on a theme or subject,such as Yoda, Flan Solo, or episode 2. The theme or subject can bechosen based on popularity, by an administrator of the site, or by aselected user (for example, someone who is an active user of the site).Alternatively, the featured photos can be selected based on popularityand recency (newness), which means the newness of the photo. In oneembodiment, the featured photos in area 159 are selected from all photosof the site based on an algorithm and are selected automatically basedon the algorithm. This automatic selection allows the site to bemaintained with no or minimal human intervention. In the example shownin FIG. 1E, area 159 is divided into 4 sections, such as sections 159_((I)), 159 _((II)), 159 _((III)), and 159 _((IV)), where 4 photos areplaced in the 4 sections.

In one embodiment page 150 of FIG. 1E can also include an area 160 forfeatured video, which are selected from all videos. Similar to featuredphotos, the featured videos can be selected by human or can beautomatically selected based on an algorithm established by theadministrator(s) or builder(s) of the site. Again, automatic selectionof featured videos allows the site to be maintained with no or minimalhuman intervention.

In one embodiment, page 150 can also include an area 161 for “Latestcomments” by users. In this area, latest comments from users are posted.For example, a comment by User-O is posted in area 162 within area 161.The user who makes the comment, what the comment is for and when thecomment was made are listed in area 162.

At the bottom of page 150, there could be areas of different subjects.For example, area 163 is for Star Wars™ movies. A number of links toStar Wars™ movies are listed, such as “A New Hope”, and “Return of theJedi,” A user can click on the title and be presented with a page fullof information, photos, videos, discussions and comments related to aStar Wars™ movie, such as “A New Hope” or “Return of the Jedi.” Similarto area 163, area 164 is for Star Wars™ games, area 165 is for StarWars™ characters, and area 166 is for Star Wars™ television shows (TV).When a user click on one of the link, information related to the linkwould be presented in a web page.

The description above shows how a Worlds site looks like. The buildingand maintaining of such a site would be described below.

As described above, creating and maintaining an entertainment-based website, such as the Star Wars™ site, are very time and money consuming.The interests and taste of online users change very rapidly; therefore,it is desirable to have an automatic system and method to create and tomaintain such a site to keep the content fresh and relevant. The contentcan be refreshed by new content from the Internet and can be added byusers of the site. In addition, active users can perform the function ofmoderators or administrators of some sections or areas of the site. Forexample, as discussed in FIG. 1E, active users can be awarded withprivilege to determine key article in area 151, featured photos in area159, and featured videos in area 160. Alternatively, key article in area151, featured photos in area 159, and featured videos in area 160 can bedetermined (or chosen) based on popularity and recency. If the site isconstructed by an automated system and method, and is designed to bemaintained by algorithms with the assistance of site users, minimaladministration from a non-user administrator(s) is required. Further,the vast content (or information) of the Internet, which are updatedregularly, and content contributed by users of the site can be utilizedto keep the site relevant and updated to users of the site.

FIG. 2A shows a system 210 for automatically creating a Worlds web site,in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Although thedescription of system 210 is focused on creating a Worlds web site, theconcept of the system can be used to create other types of web siteswith subjects interesting to online users. System 210 includes a clientsystem 211 for User-1, Internet 213, and a portal site 214. User-1utilizes the client system 211 to interact with the system 214 of theportal site through Internet 213.

For example, User-1 can access entry pages, such as page 100, 120, 130,140, 150, and 170, 190, and/or other pages that are offered by theportal site 214. The portal site 214 has a number of servers, such as acontent server 219, which prepares content of pages, such as page 100,and a Worlds server 220, which prepares content of pages, such as pages120, 130, 140, 150, 170, and 190, of a Worlds web site. The Worlds website is a site within the portal site 214. Alternatively, the Worlds website can reside outside the portal site 214. System 210 also includes auser profile server 221, which stores users' cookies and backgroundinformation. The information in the user profile server 221 helpsidentify users and allows the content server 219 and the Worlds server220 to provide content relevant to users, such as User-1. Further,system 210 has an ad server 222, which provides ads to content server219 and Worlds server 220 to appear in web pages for users, such asUser-1. Alternatively, there could be more than one Worlds servers,which are similar to Worlds server 220, to prepare content for otherWorlds sites.

Worlds server 220 takes information from various servers, such asServer-1 215, Server-2 216, Server-3 217, and Server-N 218, connected tothe Internet 213. The various servers can be any server on the Internet213, as long as it provides information relevant to the Worlds web sitecreated by Worlds server 220, Examples of servers that can provideinformation relevant to Worlds server 220 include, but not limited to,photo servers, such as Flickr, video servers, such as YouTube, musicservers. Star Wars™ merchandise site, such as Lego, and the officialStar Wars™ site (Starwars.com), etc.

When the subject (or theme) of the web site is determined, the design(or layout) of the web site should also be determine. For example, whattypes of information, such as photos, videos, music, etc., and whattypes of functionalities, such as discussion boards, blogs, usercomments, etc., the site would offer. The design (layout) of the sitedetermines the components of the storages and databases in the Worldsserver 220. For example, if the layout of the site includes photos shownto users, then the Worlds server 220 for the site would have a photostorage.

FIG. 2B shows the components in the Worlds server 220, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention. “Worlds” server 220includes a search engine 228, which allows the Worlds sewer 220 to indexcontent of web sites, such as Server-1 215, Server-2 216, Server-3, 217,and Server-N 214, connected to the Internet. The search engine 228identifies content available on the Internet that are relevant to website created in the Worlds server 220. Worlds server 220 also includes acontent server 223, which generates web pages with content for users ofthe Worlds web site, such as “The World of Star Wars™” site. In oneembodiment, Worlds server 220 has one or more photo storages, such asphoto storage 224, which store photos related to the subjects (orthemes) of the Worlds web sites, for example “Star Wars™.” The portal,such as Yahoo!, likely has a number of Worlds web sites under differentthemes (or subjects), such as Star Wars™, Indiana Jones, Wizard of Oz,etc. As mentioned above, alternatively content of different Worlds sitescan reside on different servers. The photos for different Worlds websites can be in the same photo storage (such as photo storage 224),where the databases in the storage organizes the photos for differentWorlds web sites accordingly, or in different photos storages, whereeach storage holds photos for a particular Worlds web site.

Similar to photo storage 224, the Worlds server 220 also has one or morestorages for video, such as video storage 225, which store videos forWorlds web sites. Similar to the photo storage 224, the videos fordifferent Worlds web sites can be in the same video storage (such asvideo storage 225), where the databases in the storage organizes thevideos for different Worlds web sites accordingly, or in differentvideos storages, where each storage holds videos for a particular Worldsweb site. Further, the Worlds server 220 can have one or more storagesfor discussion boards and blogs, such as discussion and blog storage226, which store discussion threads of various discussion boards andblogs. In addition, the Worlds server 220 can have one or more storagesfor main characters in Star Wars™, such as character storage 227, whichstores descriptions and information of key characters of Star Wars™. Forexample, description and information related to Yoda and Han Solo can bestored in the character storage 227. If the Worlds web site is notrelated to a movie, the character storage 227 can be renamed for keyplayer storage. For example, a Worlds site for a particular collegebasketball team would have a key player storage 227 that storesinformation or description about key players of the team for differentyears. Other types of information, such as music, comments, etc., canalso be stored in various storages, such as information storage 229, inthe Worlds server 220. In one embodiment, the information stored in theinformation storage 229 is text-based information, which is related tothe subject of the site (Star Wars™). In one embodiment, the Worldsserver 220 includes a music storage 244, which stores music filesrelated to the subject of Star Wars™. The Worlds server 220 can alsoinclude a member info storage 281, which stores information related tomembers (or users) of the site. Photos and/or avatars of the users canbe stored here or be stored in the photo storage 224.

The search engine 228 identifies content related to the search termsfrom the Internet to be placed into different storages, such as storages224, 225, 226, 227, 229, and 244 of Worlds server 220. The placement ofdifferent types of files in different storages is according to filetypes. For example, well known photo file formats include, but notlimited to, JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), TIFF (Tagged ImageFile Format), GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), SVG (Scalable VectorGraphics), etc. Similarly, videos and music pieces also have their ownfile formats. The system can be set up to place files into differentstorages according to their formats. For example, photo files are placedin photo storage 224, and video files are placed in video storage 225,etc. In one embodiment, files can be placed in different storagesaccording to file formats and/or sources of files. For example, filesfrom YouTube.com are most likely to be videos and they are placed invideo storage(s). In another embodiment, text-based content (orinformation, or files) found on Internet sites can be organizedaccording to the types of the information to be placed in differentstorages. For example, if character description of characters, such asYoda, is identified by the search engine 228 and its source becomes afeed with such information, the character description can beauto-populated in the character storage 227. Alternatively, sometext-based and non-text-based information might require editorial and/oruser-generated inputs.

Some storages, such as discussion and blog storage 226, might not bepopulated with content from the Internet. Instead, such storage, e.g.discussion and blog storage 226, are populated by content created byusers of the site. For example, users choose topics for the discussionboards and blogs after the site is launched.

The content server 223 interact with various storages, such as storages224, 225, 226, 227, and 229, in the Worlds server 220 to prepare webpages, such as pages 150, 170, and 190 discussed above, requested byusers, such as User-1.

As discussed above, information that is interesting to users changesrapidly. It's very expansive to set up and maintain a site by dedicatedpersonnel. Therefore, it's desirable to have an automated system andmethod to set up and maintain the Worlds site. The system is discussedabove in FIGS. 2A and 2B. To set up the Worlds site, such as “The Worldof Star Wars™” site (or the “Star Wars™” site), a systemadministrator(s) can enter a number of key words or phrases to searchfor content (or information) on a number of web sites. For example, insetting up the Star Wars™ site, key words or phrases, such as StarWars™, Darth Vader, Yoda, Han Solo, R2D2, C3PO, Princess Leia, etc, canbe entered. The web sites to search for content can be any web sitesthat store information relevant to Star Wars™. For example, web sites,such as Flickr.com, could be searched for photos related to Star Wars™,and web sites, such as YouTube.com, could be searched for videos relatedto Star Wars™, in addition, the official “Starwars.com” site also haveinformation regarding key characters of Star Wars™, which can besearched or downloaded. Some of these sites might allow their content tobe downloaded (or embedded). Other sites might only allow posting linksthat point to content on their sites. Therefore, the storages mentionedabove can store links to contents. For example, content from dig.com anddel.icio.us often points to these two sites. Further, Yahoo!, thecompany that creates the Star Wars™ site, could enter a partnership withone of the sites that have content relevant to Star Wars™, such asStarwars.com. With the partnership, information sharing would be guidedby the contract of the partnership.

FIG. 2C shows a form 230 that can be used by an administrator(s) tocreate a web site based on a subject (or a theme), in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention. The subjects of the web sitecan be anything, as long as there are Internet users interesting in thesubjects. For example, the subjects can be related to entertainment,sports, and music, etc. The number of Internet users interesting in thesubjects that is considered to be sufficient can be determined by theowner(s) or sponsor(s) of such a site. For example, Yahoo! can determinethat there are enough Internet users interested in Star Wars™ andcreating “The World of Star Wars™” site would drive traffic to Yahoo!site and bring advertising businesses to Yahoo!.

If the theme (or subject) of the site is “Star Wars™,” theadministrator(s) can use the form 230 to fill out the theme (or subject)of the site being created. In the example in FIG. 2C, the administratorenters “Star Wars™” in box 231. The administrator also enters key wordsor phrases in boxes, 231, 232, 233, to 234 (box M). For example, DarthVader, Yoda, Flan Solo, etc. The number (M) of boxes to enter searchkeywords, which can be words or phrases, can be as low as 1 and as highas possible, such as 100 or more. An example of number for M is 20.Other numbers, such as 30, or 40, are also possible. The number for Mdepends on the amount of time and hardware allocated for processing thefeeds. With higher number of M, more time and more hardware are neededfor processing the data related to the search keywords. Theadministrator can also use the form 230 to fill out the uniform resourcelocators (URLs) of the web sites that could have content relevant to thesite being created. In the example shown in FIG. 2C, the administratorenters URLs, such as “starwars.com” in box 236, “youtube.com” in box237, “flickr.com” in box 238, and URLs of other web sites in other boxes(not shown), such as box 239 (box O). The number (O) of boxes to enterweb sites for searching relevant content can be as low as 1 and as highas possible, such as 100 or more. An example of number for O is 20.Other numbers, such as 30, or 40, are also possible. The number for Odepends on the amount of time and hardware allocated for processing thefeeds. With higher number of O, more time and more hardware are neededfor processing the data on higher number of web sites.

In one embodiment, the administrator can also select a layout plan forthe web site from a list of layout selections. The layouts in the listof layout selection are pre-designed. A layout of a web site determineshow the web pages look like when users of the web site request pagesfrom the site, and what types of information and functionalities areoffered to the users of the site. In one embodiment, the layout of thesite determines the design of storages and databases of the site. In theexample shown in FIG. 2C, the administrator chooses Layout-1 240 overLayout-2 241, and Layout-3 242. It is assumed that the administratorknows the design of layout-1 240, layout-2 241, and layout-3 242. Afterall information needed to create the site Is entered, the administratorcan push a button 243 to create the site. Once the button is pushed, theWorlds server 220 would start collecting content from the web sitesidentified. The “Star Wars™” web site can be created and be populatedwith the content retrieved from the web sites identified. Alternatively,the content search can happen first and the layout plan can be selectedafter initial content searched is performed.

After the web site is created and launched, and users start to use thesite, users can contribute content to the site by participating in thediscussion boards and blogs. In addition, users can also upload files,such as photo files and videos files, to the site to share with otherusers. Users can also help “tag” the content of the web site to makecontent of the site more searchable. For example, a user who sees a“Yoda” picture could add the tag “jedi” to indicate that Yoda is a Jedi.This allows the picture for photo) to be associated with the term“jedi,” and the photo to be searched by entering the term “jedi,” intothe search engine of the web site. The original tagging of the photomight not include the term “jedi”. The user's adding (or creation) ofthe tag term “jedi” provides addition metadata to the photo. With theparticipation of users, the content of the web site can increase rapidlyand be continuously updated. Users' participation is very important forsuch a site. Users' knowledge of content in the site can help the sitebe more interesting, updated, and more searchable.

In one embodiment, users' activities affect information displayed in thesite. As discussed above, the most popular site content, such as photos,videos, and discussion boards, are highlighted in more prominent placeson the web pages of the web site. For example, the lead article in area151, featured photos in area 159, and featured videos in area 160 can beselected by users who are most active on the site, i.e. by users whomake a lot of comments, upload many photos and videos, etc. Of course,the lead article in area 151, featured photos in area 159, and featuredvideos in area 160 can also be selected based on other algorithms.Another example is the latest comment by users in area 161 of FIG. 1E.Showing users' inputs, comments, and activities and allowing users'activities and involvement in the site to affect site content wouldencourage users to be more involved in the site, would increase trafficto the site and would make users more loyal to the site.

The photos, videos, and other types of information that are foundrelevant to the main subject of Star Wars™ can be down-loaded to theStar Wars™ site described here and be placed in the various storages,such as storages 224, 225, 226, 227, and 229, described above. Ofcourse, content is only down-loaded only legally and/or with approval.In addition, the content of the site, such as photos, videos, etc., thatare entered and/or uploaded by the users are also stored in the variousstorages, such as storages 224, 225, 226, 227, and 229, described above.The content contributed by the users become content of the site and canbe viewed and commented by all users of the site.

As mentioned above, web pages of the web site, such as pages 150, 170,and 190, have search boxes that allow users to search for content in theweb site. The search engine 228 of Worlds server 228 also indexescontent of “The World of Star Wars™” web site created by and in theWorlds server 220. The search index created by the search engine 228allows users of the site to search for content on the web sites.Searching for content with text, such as description of characters,discussion boards, and blogs, is relatively straightforward, since thetext of such content is seachable. When users enter keywords, contentwith text that contains the keywords would be identified. However,non-text-based content of the site, such as photos, and music, etc.,need to be tagged with words or phrases to allow (or enable) searching.The tags for non-text-based fifes, such as photos, videos and musicpieces, can come from the sources of these files. For example, photos atFlickr.com are often tagged. Many web sites that store non-text-basedfiles, such as photos, videos, and music, set up their systems to allowusers to tag the files. For example, the tags can be entered by thepeople who upload the photo files to Flickr.com. Alternatively, titlesand description of non-text-based files, such as photos, videos, andmusic pieces, etc., are text-based and can be considered as tags too.The original tags can be imported along with the photo files and bedownloaded to the photo storage(s) 224 in the Worlds server 220 alongwith the photos. These user tags are also very valuable and can bestored to enable searching of the non-text-based files.

FIG. 2D shows a photo database 250 in the photo storage 224 of FIG. 2B,in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Photodatabase 250 stores photo files, which can be downloaded from theInternet or uploaded by users of the Star Wars™ site. Photo database 250has an identification (ID) column 251, which stores IDs of photo files,a description column 254, which stores a brief description of the photofile, a tag column 255, which stores tags related to the photo files,and a photo fife column 256, which stores the photo files. In oneembodiment, each ID in the ID column 251 is made up of two sets ofidentifications, source ID 252 and photo ID 253. Source ID 252 indicatesthe source of the photo file. For example, if the photo file, such asphotofile1 257, is downloaded from a site, such as Flickr.com. Thesource ID 252 is an ID, which is “xxxxx” in the current example,assigned by the Star Wars™ site to Flickr.com. Yahoo!can assign a uniqueID to each external site (or source site). If the photo is uploaded by auser, the unique ID of the user, which is given by Yahoo!, can be used.The photo ID 253 is an ID associated with the photo file 257, hi oneembodiment, the photo ID is taken from the source site, such asFlickr.com. Normally, each photo file has an ID assigned. If an ID isnot associated with a photo file, a title and/or a post-date can be usedto identify the photo. If the photo file is uploaded by a user, Yahoo!can assign an ID to the photo file.

In the current example, the photo ID of photo file 257 is “yyyyy,” whichcan be an ID that comes with the photo from the downloading site and isan ID associated with the photo on the downloading site. If the photo isuploaded to the web site by a user, the photo ID can be an ID associatedwith the photo or be assigned by the web site or by the user. The sourceID 252 and photo ID 253 can be made up of numbers, alphabets, or acombination of both. The combined source ID 252 and photo ID 253 of eachphoto file makes a unique ID for the photo file. The unique ID of eachphoto file allows the photo file to be uniquely identified. When thesearch engine of Star Wars™ site performs searches of photo files in theidentified sites, even if the photo IDs of two different photo filesfrom two different sites are the same, the IDs of these two photos wouldbe different due to different source IDs assigned to different sites.

The description column 254 stores description of the photo file. Forexample, the description of photo file 257 is “Yoda.” Typically, thereis a description (or title) associated with a photo. If the photo isdownloaded from another site, the description (or title) can come withthe photo. If the photo is uploaded by the user, the user can enter adescription (or title) for the photo. In addition, the tags for photofile 257 are “yoda,” and “episode 2.” Both the term “yoda” and the term“episode 2” help describe the photo 257. When a user conducts a searchon the web site using a search term that matches one of the tags of thephoto, the photo would be identified. Alternatively, the search termdoes not need to match the full tag term. Matching of partial term wouldallow the identification of the photo. For example, when a user types in“episode 1” as a search term, photo file 257 could be identified, sincephoto file 257 has a tag term “episode 2” that has a word “episode”matching part of the search terra “episode 3.” Since the match is notexact, photo file 257 would appear below other photos, videos, or othertypes of files that have tags matching better (or closer) to “episode3.” Table 250 is filled with various photo files with corresponding IDs,descriptions, tags, and photo files.

Similar to a photo database 250, the video storage 225 can also hasvideo databases organized in a manner similar to the photo database 250.The video files in the video database can also have unique IDs based ona combination of source IDs and video IDs. Any content files that aredownloaded can be stored in the manner described above for FIG. 2D.Unique IDs of the downloaded files also allow the downloaded files to beuniquely stored in the databases and to avoid downloading a filemultiple times. For example, search engine 228 indexes the web sites forcontent continuously. A photo file that has been indexed and downloadedwould not be downloaded again, since the unique ID of photo file isstored in the database. Before the server 220 downloads a file, server220 would check the ID of the file with IDs of files stored in thesystem. If the ID already exists in the system, server 220 would notdownload the file again.

The tags associated with photos, videos, music, and other types of filesstored on the Star Wars™ site allow these non-text-based files to besearchable by users of the site. Text-based files can also be tagged.Tagging of text-based files can also assist searching. Usually, the tagsof text-based files are given higher weights than the text in thetext-based files. As mentioned above in box 182 of FIG. 1G, tags canalso be added by users of the current Star Wars™ site. To avoid someusers abusing the tagging function to enter offensive tags and/orincorrect tags, the system can be set up with algorithms to allow someusers with good track records (or approved users) with unlimited taggingcapability, while allowing new users and/or un-proven users limitedtagging capability. For example, the tagging by un-proven users is onlyapproved when more than one users tag the item with the same terms. Thetagged terms can also be first checked to screen out offensive terms bya checking tool.

FIG. 2E shows a search result page 260 for the search term “yoda,” inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Page 260 isreturned when a user, such as User-1, enters the term “yoda” in thesearch box 101′ of FIG. 1E, 1F, or 1G. The result page 260 contains anumber of results that include video(s), photo(s), and character taggedwith the term “yoda”, and text containing the term “yoda.” In theexample shown in the result page 260, the search results include twovideos 261, 262, three photos 263, 264, 265, an answer 266 to a questionrelated to “yoda”, and a character description 267 of the character“Yoda” in Star Wars™. Each video (261 or 262) contains tags and sourceof the video. For example, video 261 is tagged with the term “yoda”,while video 262 is tagged with terms including “yoda”, and “star wars,”etc. Videos 261 and 262 are both from “YouTube.com.” Similar to videos,photos 263, 264, and 265 are also tagged and the sources of the photosare also listed. In one embodiment, brief descriptions (not shown) forvideos (261, 262), and photos (263, 264, and 265) are included.

The answer 266 has a link 268, which can be clicked to display the fullquestion and answers for the question. The answer 226 is listed in thesearch result because the question for the answer 266 is related to“yoda.” In the example shown in FIG. 2E, the latest posting date andtime for an answer to the question in answer 266 is listed. Below theposting date and time, the question of “What race is Yoda” is listed.Below the question, the tag(s) for the answer 266 is listed to be“yoda.” The character description 267 includes the character name“Yoda,” and a description of character “Yoda.” The tags for thecharacter are also included.

Below the research results, there are additional pages, such as 2, 3, 4,5, next, previous, first, and last, containing search results of “yoda”.In one embodiment, at the bottom of the result page 260, an area 269with a list of search results related to “yoda” found from the Internet(or Web) is included. For fans that are enthusiastic about Star Wars™,the searching capability on the Star Wars™ site allows them to find thethings, such as photos, videos, discussions, etc., related to StarWars™. On the right side of page 260, there could be an ad area 152 andan area 270 listing sponsored links related to the search term “yoda.”In area 270 of FIG. 2E, an exemplary link 271 with “Star Wars™ Yoda ofAmazon,” and an exemplary link 272 with “Yoda at eBay” are shown. Siteowner of “The World of Star Wars™,” such as Yahoo!, can make financialgains from the ads and sponsored links displayed in area 152 and area271. Advertisers often pay to display sponsored links (or results) basedon matching keywords, which can be words or phrases.

In addition to enabling search, tags of objects, such as photos, videos,music pieces, etc., in databases in the web site, tags can also be usedto associate different objects in the databases. For example, in theStar Wars™ site, there is a Star Wars™ character, Darth Vader, as shownin area 165 of FIG. 1E. The character of Darth Vader includes title anda description of the character, and has an ID “123666” in the databaseof characters, which can be stored in information storage 229. In oneembodiment, the first three digital numbers “123” of ID “123666”represents the source of the character, which can be an Internet site, auser of the site, or an editor of the site. The next three digitalnumber “666” of ID “123666” represent character ID of Darth Vader. Thecharacter of Darth Vader could be tagged with a number of terms, such as“Darth Vader,” “Sith Lord,” “Anakin Skywalker,” and “Dark side,” etc. Asmentioned above, the web site allows users to tag objects, includingtext-based objects (such as characters), and non-text-based objects(such as photos, videos, and music pieces).

Similar to the character of Darth Vader being tagged with a number ofterms, a photo containing an image of Darth Vader holding a lightsabercould be tagged with a number of terms, such as “Darth Vader,” “Episode2,” “lightsaber,” “Sith,” and “anakin,” etc. Both the character of DarthVader and the photo containing the image of Darth Vader holding alightsaber described above are related to Darth Vader. The photodescribed above mainly contains an image of Darth Vader holding alightsaber; therefore, the photo is very much related to the characterof Darth Vader. In contrast, if the photo contains an image of a numberof Star Wars™ characters, including the character Darth Vader, standingnext one another at a Star Wars™ convention, the photo is tagged with“Darth Vader” because Darth Vader is in the photo, but the whole photois overall more related to Star Wars™ and Star Wars™ convention than thecharacter Darth Vader. If a number of users view the photo with theimage of a number of Star Wars™ characters at a Star Wars™ convention,they would likely tag the photo with terms including: Star Wars™,convention, Darth Vader, Yoda, Han Solo, Las Vegas (the city of theconvention), 2007 (the year of the convention), etc. More users wouldtag the photo with Star Wars™ than Darth Vader. Users' common sense orjudgment can be utilized to determine the content of objects in thedatabases of the web site through tagging. If an object, such as aphoto, is more related to Darth Vader, a higher number of users and/or ahigher percentage of users who tag the object would tag it with “DarthVader.” The users might tag the photo with other terms, such as“lightsaber,” “anakin,” or “anakin skywalker,” but since the photo ismainly of Darth Vader, most users who enter tags would tag it with“Darth Vader.”

The system can be set up to allow users of the system to enter tags forobjects, which could be text-based or non-text-based. For example, thebutton 182 of adding tags in FIG. 1G can be used. Users can also beencouraged to enter tags. To encourage users to add tags to the objectsaccording to their impression and not be influence by the existing tags,the existing tags can be hidden or the users can be informed to entertags by not worrying about or not considering the existing tags.Informing users to enter tags without considering the existing tagsencourages users to add tag terms regardless of existing tag terms shownin the field 198 of tags of FIG. 1G. Databases can be set up to trackthe number of times a certain tag term is entered by users. For example,a database storing the tag terms for a photo of the character DarthVader holding a lightsaber can store different tags and number of usersentering the different tags for the photo. FIG. 3A shows a table 300 (ora database) storing lags for photos, in accordance with one embodimentof the present invention. In table 300 of FIG. 3A, there is a column 301of photo ID, an optional column 302 of photo description, a column 303of different tag terms (or tags) for the photo, a column 304 of thenumber of users for each tag term, and a column 305 of percentage (%) ofusers who tag the photo with a particular tag term. The column 302 ofphoto description is optional because some photos are downloaded oruploaded without a description of the photo.

The photo of the character Darth Vader described above has a photo ID“456888”. The photo does not have a description. The tag terms enteredby users for the photo include “Darth Vader,” “lightsaber,” “sith lord,”“cloak,” “dark side,” and “anakin skywalker,” etc. FIG. 3A shows thenumber and percentage of users entering each tag term. According to FIG.3A, 12 users or 50.0% of users enter the tag term “Darth Vader” for thephoto, and 4 users or 16.6% of users enter the tag terms “sith lord” and“anakin skywalker” for the photo. All other tag terms receive fewernumbers or lower percentages of users.

If a relatively high number and/or a relatively high percentage of usersentering lag terms for a photo consider the photo should be tagged withone or more particular tag terms, the photo can be considered to beperceived by most users to be associated with the one or more tag terms.In the example in FIG. 3A, 12 users or 50% users who enter tag terms (ortags) for the photo consider the photo is associated with “Darth Vader.”Although the photo shows Darth Vader holding a lightsaber, but the mainfocus of the photo is Darth Vader; therefore, only 2 users or 8.3% ofusers tag the photo with “lightsaber,” Users' perception of the photo isreflected in the tag terms they chose. In the example of FIG. 3A, thephoto can be considered to be mainly associated with “Darth Vader.”

When an object, such as a photo, in the databases of the web site istagged with a number of tag terms. This object is associated with eachof these tag terms, since at least one user considers the object isassociated with the tag term. This type of association can be consideredas a “soft” association, which means the object is somewhat related tothe tag terms entered by users for the object. For example, the photo ofDarth Vader holding a lightsaber can be considered to have “soft”association with tag terms, such as “Darth Vader,” “lightsaber,” etc.,as shown in FIG. 3A. Among the tag terms associated with, the photo,“Darth Vader,” “Sith Lord,” and “anakin skywalker” are considered to bemore associated with the photo than other tag terms. The photo isespecially more associated with “Darth Vader,” since 12 users or 50% ofusers consider the photo is associated with “Darth Vader.” When anobject's association with a tag term passes a threshold, such as acertain number of users or a certain percentage of users considering thetag term being associated with the object, the object can be consideredto have a “hard” association with the tag term. A “hard” association isa definite relationship that can be determined by a human contentproducer or administrator. For example, a human content producer oradministrator can determine that an object, such as a photo, in the website is related a subject or title, such as Yoda. The human contentproducer or administrator can define this hard association through thecontent management system, such as by using a database to relate theobject to the title or subject.

In the example described above, the threshold for hard association couldbe 7 users or 30% of users fagging the object. If greater than or equalto 7 users or 30% users who tag the object (the photo) enter aparticular tag term, the entered tag term is considered to have a “hard”association with the object (in this case, the photo). In the example ofFIG. 3A, the photo has a hard association with the tag term “DarthVader,” since 12 users and 50% users, which exceed the threshold(s), tagthe photo with “Darth Vader.” The threshold limit can be a number ofusers or a percentage of users who tag the object, or a combination of anumber of users and a percentage of users, hi other word, the hardassociation is rate-based, such as user tagging rate (or user taggingfrequency, or number of users who enters the tag term), and percentageof users tagging, etc. The limit (or criteria) of hard association canbe determined by the administrator of the site, the content manager ofthe site or anyone assigned to manage the content. For some objects thatare tagged by few users, the percentage threshold would make more sense,since only limited number of users tag the object. Alternatively, thethreshold can be a number of users or a percentage of users who tag theobject over a certain period. For example, the threshold can be 40% ofusers who tag the object over a week or a month, etc. In one embodiment,different objects can have different thresholds since some objectsrequire higher or lower thresholds. In one embodiment, a particular typeof objects, such as photo, have a defined threshold. For example, thethreshold for all photos are the same. Defining a single threshold for aparticular type of objects, such as photos or videos, or music pieces,simplifies the threshold defining process (or algorithm).

As mentioned above, a “hard” association is a definite relationship thatcan be determined by a human content producer and the association ismade through the content management system. The photo with photo ID456888 is determined to have a “hard” association with the tag term“Darth Vader,” since the “soft” association passes a threshold. In oneembodiment, this hard association is defined in a database. FIG. 3Bshows a table 310 created for objects passing the “hard” associationcriteria with different tag terms, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention. In FIG. 3B, there are a number of objects withassociated tag terms, such as row 313 with an object ID 456888 andassociated “Darth Vader” tag term, row 314 with an object ID 234777 andassociated “Yoda” tag term, and row 315 with an object ID 789333 andassociated “Darth Vader” tag term. As mentioned above, the object ID456888 is for the photo (an object in the database) of an image of DarthVader holding a lightsaber. The other object with object ID 789333 thatalso has a “hard” association with the same tag term, “Darth Vader” asthe object with object ID 456888 is an object of character of DarthVader, which describes the characteristics and/or background of DarthVader. Since both the object with ID 456888 (the photo) and the objectwith ID 789333 (the Darth Vader character) have a “association” with thetag term “Darth Vader,” these two objects can be considered to also havea “hard” association. Data in FIG. 38 can be arranged to show another“hard” association as shown in Table 320 of FIG. 3C, in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention.

Table 320 of FIG. 3C has a column 321 of object (I) ID for object (I), acolumn 322 of object (II) ID for object (II), and an optional column 323of tag term, which establishes a “hard” association between object (I)and object (II). In the example of FIG. 3C, object (I) (the photo withDarth Vader holding lightsaber) with an object (I) ID of 456888 has a“hard” association with object (II) (the character of Darth Vader) withan object (II) ID of 789333, as shown in row 324. These two objectsestablish a “hard” association because they both have a hard associationwith the tag term “Darth Vader”. Similarly, object (I) with an object(I) ID 234777 and object (II) with an object (II) ID 32911.1 have a hardassociation because they both have a hard association with the tag termYoda, as shown in row 325. In Table 320, the object with object ID of456888 also has a hard association with another object with ID 112444because they both have a hard association with the tag term Darth Vader,as shown in row 326. An objection can have a hard association with morethan one objects. Alternatively, a database for storing differentobjects having hard associations can have more than two columns ofobjects, which allows more than two objects to be associated by a commontag term. For example, row 326 and row 324 can be combined into one rowby the insertion of an additional column for object, such as object(III).

When an object has a hard association with a tag term, it means thatmany users think the object is strongly associated with the tag term orthe tag term can mostly define or describe the content of the object.For example, many users consider the photo with the image of Darth Vaderholding a lightsaber is strongly associated with the term “Darth Vader”and tag the photo with “Darth Vader.” This means that when these userssaw the photo, they thought about “Darth Vader.” In one embodiment, theobjects that have “hard” associations with certain tag terms can beplaced in more prominent positions on the web site, such as the area 159for featured photos and area 160 for featured video of FIG. 1E. Asmentioned above in FIG. 1E, page 150 can include an area 159 forfeatured photos, which are selected from all photos in the site.Similarly, FIG. 1E can also include an area 160 for featured video,which are also selected from all videos. As described above, thefeatured photos cab be all centered on a theme or subject, such as Yoda,or Darth Vader, etc. The theme or subject can be chosen based onpopularity, by an administrator of the site, or by a selected user (forexample, someone who is an active user of the site). The featured photoscan be selected based on popularity and recency (newness), which meansthe newness of the photo. Alternatively, the featured photos can bephotos with “hard” association with the theme. For example, if the themeof the featured photos is “Darth Vader,” displaying the photo that has ahard association with the tag term “Darth Vader” would make sense, sincemany users consider the photo is associated with “Darth Vader,” Ofcourse, the selection of photos to display in the featured photo area159 can be based on a requirement that include the photos having a“hard” association with the tag term “Darth Vader” and meeting athreshold of popularity. In another embodiment, a recency requirementcan also be added to the selection algorithm for selecting featuredphotos (or videos, etc.).

As mentioned above, two or more objects can have a “hard” associationbecause they have a hard association with a tag term. When one of theseobjects, such as object-A, that have a hard association with a tag termis opened (or displayed) on a web page, the other objects that have ahard association with the object (object-A) can be identified on the webpage. FIG. 3D shows a web page 330 including a photo 331 of Darth Vader,in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The web page330 appears after User-1 clicks on the section 159(I) in area 159 ofFIG. 1E, which contains a photo of Darth Vader holding a lightsabermentioned above (with object ID 456888). The photo in section 159(I) isenlarged and displayed in an area 331 in FIG. 3D. Under the photo, thereis a description of the photo, “Darth Vader.” Below the description ofthe photo, there are a number of links to objects that have a hardassociation with the photo in area 331. For example, one of the links islink 333, which connects to the object of Darth Vader character, whichhas an objection ID of 789333 in FIGS. 3B and 3C. When User-1 clicks onthe link 333, a web page describing the Darth Vader character wouldappear. The Darth Vader photo in the area 331 could have a hardassociation with more than one object. For example, it could have a hardassociation with a Darth Vader video, which has an object ID of 112444as shown in FIG. 3C and can be accessed through link 334. More links toobjects having a hard association with the photo in area 331 can belisted below link 334. Other information related to the photo of area331 can be displayed in the information field 335 below. The informationfield 335 can be sub-divided into a number of fields in a manner similarto FIG. 1G, which also display a photo in field 193. On the right sideof the web page 330, there could be one or more fields of advertisementsand contents, which could be similar to the fields 152, 201, 203, 205,and 206 of FIG. 1G.

FIG. 3E shows a process flow 340 for automatically creating a site, suchas the Star Wars™ site discussed above, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. At operation 341, a subject of asite is selected (or determined). For example, the subject of the sitecan be “Star Wars™.” At operation 342, a list of search terms related tothe subject of the site is entered to a form created to search forcontent available on the Internet. For example, the list of search termsentered can be “Darth Vader,” “Yoda,”, and “Han Solo,” etc, as listed inFIG. 2C. At operation 343, a list of sites on the Internet is entered todetermine which sites for a search engine of the system to search forcontent relevant to the site. The list of sites will be searched forcontent related to the search terms entered at operation 342 and thesubject determined at operation 341. At operation 344, a layout for thesite is selected. Different types of sites might need different types oflayout designs of the sites. For example, a fan site related to aparticular sport or a particular athlete can be different form a fan fora particular movie(s). The layout (or design) of the site determineswhat types of content and functionalities are offered to the site users.For example, the layout determines whether the site will display photos,videos, and music, and also what types of functionalities, such asdiscussion boards, blogs, and user comments, are offered. Once thelayout is determine, the search for content for the site can beinitiated at operation 345. Alternatively, the content search can occurbefore the layout is determined. At operation 346, the content collectedfrom these selected sites on the Internet are used to populate thedatabases of the site (or populate the content of the site) to createthe site. After the databases of the site are sufficient populated, atoperation 347, the new site is launched and becomes accessible by users.Once users start to use the site, users would contribute content to thesite by uploading files, joining discussion, and entering texts inblogs. At operation 348, the content contributed by users is entered bythe system to update content of the site. At the same time the users areadding content to the site, the search engine for the site continues tosearch for new content available on the Internet. The administrator canupdate search terms and search sites for content for the site. Forexample, a new Internet site might be chosen to search for content. Atan optional operation 349, the search terms and search sites in theform(s) used operation 342 and 343 are updated by the administrator.This step is optional because the administrator does not need to updatethe search terms and search sites.

FIG. 3F shows a process flow 350 for establishing hard associations forobjects and displaying objects with hard associations, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention. At operation 351, acriteria for establishing hard associations of objects in the web siteswith tag terms for these objects is determined. A person responsible forthese objects, which are contents and data of the web site, candetermine the criteria. At operation 352, the data in databases of theweb site are processed to identify objects and associated tag terms thatpass the hard association criteria. At operation 353, one or moredatabases to store correlated objects and tag terms that have passed thehard association criteria. At operation 354, the data in the one or moredatabases created at operation 353 are processed to identify objectsthat share the same tag terms. At operation 355, one or more databasesto store correlated objects sharing the same tag terms that areidentified at operation 354 are created.

At operation 356, more weight (or priority) is assigned to objectshaving hard associations with tag terms during selection of an objectfor displaying on a web page. The display location can be prominent orregular. In embodiment, the display location is prominent. In oneembodiment, the selection criteria is related to a tag term. Objectstagged with the tag term can be selected. When an object is assignedwith more weight, the object is more likely to be selected. In oneembodiment, the weights assigned to objects passing the hard associationcriteria correlate to the percentage of users tagging the objects withthe correlated tag terms. Using the example in FIG. 3A, the object withobject ID 456888 has a weight correlating to 50% of users tagging theobject with Darth Vader. When objects related to Darth Vader aresearched for displaying in a prominent area of a web page, the objectwith object ID 456888 with 50% tagging rate would be selected overanother object having a hard association with Darth Vader with a 33%tagging rate, since the selected is weighted towards 50%. In anotherembodiment, weights assigned to objects correlate to the percentages ofusers tagging the tag terms, regardless of whether the objects pass thehard association criteria with different tag terms. Using the example ofFIG. 3A, not only the object with object ID 456888 is weighted for thetag term Darth Vader (due to hard association), the object is alsoweighted for other tag terms, such as lightsaber, and sith lord etc,even other tag terms do not have high enough tagging rate to pass thehard association criteria. The user tagging rates, such as 8.3% for“lightsaber,” and 16.6% for “Sith Lord,” are used for weighting duringobject selection.

As mentioned above, a hard association between an object and a tag term,and between two objects can also be assigned by a system administratoror a content producer. The concept of assigning more weight for objectshaving hard associations can also apply to objects whose hardassociations are determined by a human, such as an administrator or aproducer.

At operation 357, an object that has a hard association with a tag termand is selected by the selection process described in operation 356 todisplay in a prominent location of the web page is displayed on the webpage. At an optional operation 358, a link to another object that has ahard association with the object of operation 357 is displayed on theweb page along with the object of operation 357. Operation 358 onlyoccurs, if there is another object that has a hard association with theobject of operation 357. More than one links to other objects that hashard associations with the object of operation 357 can be displayed ifthere more than one objects having hard association with the object ofoperation 357.

FIG. 4A shows the components in the Worlds server 220′, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention. In addition to thecomponents shown in FIG. 2B, worlds server 220′ has all the component ofthe Worlds server 220 of FIG. 2B. In addition, Worlds server 220′ has aserver 407 with algorithm to allow user tags, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. The server 407 includes analgorithm that generate web pages to collect tag terms entered by usersand to receive tag terms entered by users for different objects in theweb site.

Further, Worlds server 220′ has a server 400 that stores databases ofhard association records, such as the databases (or tables) of FIGS. 3A,3B, and 3C, and weightings of objects. In one embodiment, Worlds server220′ also has a server 405 storing algorithm for hard association andweighting for different objects in the web site. The algorithms in theserver 405 are used to generate databases of hard association andweighting of objects in the web site. FIG. 4B shows the differentdatabases (or tables) in server 400, in accordance with one embodimentof the present invention. For example, server 400 has a database 401 forobjects having hard associations with tag terms, a database 402 forobjects having hard associations through common tag terms, a database403 of weights for objects having hard associations with tag terms, andother databases 404. The different databases in server 400 are generatedand used to assist selection of objects to be display in prominentlocations in web pages of the web site, such as areas 159, and 160 ofFIG. 1E, and area 193 of FIG. 1G. In addition, links for objects withhard associations with other objects can be displayed when theassociated objects are displayed, such as links 333, and 334 of FIG. 3D.

Creating hard association of objects with tag terms and with otherobjects help to bring the objects are more clearly associated withcertain tag terms from the user's perspective to be brought intoprominent locations in the web pages of the web sites. Selecting objectswith hard association to display in prominent locations of web pages ofthe web site over objects without hard association could increase theconfidence of users of the content and quality of the web site.

The web site created is supposed be maintained with minimal resources,such as by system administrators. The home page of the web site, such aspage 150 of FIG. 1E, is designed to present information that is mostupdated and most popular to users. In the beginning of constructing ofthe web site, when no or few users have accessed the web site, theadministrator can select the lead article in area 151, a few videos inarea 159, and photos in area 160 of page 150. Alternatively, the systemcan be set up to populate these fields in the beginning by an algorithm,such as placing most updated article, videos, and photos in thesefields. In another embodiment, these fields can be populated by article,videos, and photos that are most popular to the Internet, users. Thepopularities of articles, videos, photos, and other types of filesavailable on the Internet are usually known. Once users have used thesite, users of the site can have more influence to the content in thesefields. For example, these fields, 151, 159, and 160, can be populatedby articles, videos, and photos, respectively, based on recency(newness) and popularity of the users of the site. Recency of a filereflects how new the file is. Users can be more interested in latestdata. Alternatively, active contributors or users of the site can beenlisted to administer the site. For example, the most activecontributors) can be enlisted to select lead article, feature photos, orfeature videos, etc.

Similarly, the “latest comments” field 160 can be populated based onrecency, since field 160 displays “latest” comments. The various fieldsand areas on web pages of the site can be populated by content based onalgorithms set up by the system creator(s), or system administrator(s).The system administrator can always interview to take down inappropriatecontent or to remove offensive users. The site can include features toallow users to report inappropriate users or inappropriate useractivities on the site. However, the goal is to have the site almostautomatically run with limited involvement of paid personnel Users'contribution of content and interaction with the site keep the contentof the web site updated, fresh and interesting. The site is “alive” withusers' inputs. In addition, the search engine for the site continues tosearch for content from the relevant web sites on the Internet to keepthe content of the site fresh and updated.

Such a site that is created by an automatic system and method reducesthe time and money needed to create and maintain the site. In addition,using the fresh content available on the Internet, content contributedby the users, and inputs (such as discussion, tagging, etc.) from theusers, the site can capture information that is most relevant andinteresting to the users.

Although the exemplary web site (“The World of Star Wars™” site)discussed above resides in a portal (Yahoo!), web sites created andmaintained in the manner described above does not need to be part of aportal. Web sites created and maintained in the manner above can beindependent sites. Further the concept of hard association can be usedto in any site that allow users to tag objects in the site and to usethe hard association of objects to select objects for displaying and todisplay the hard association of objects through links described above.

Embodiments of the present invention provide automatic systems andmethods for creating a web site based on a particular subject usinginformation available on the Internet. As discussed above, creating andmaintaining a web site with updated content can be very time andresource consuming. Therefore, it is desirable to create and maintainsuch a site with an automatic system and method using informationavailable on the Internet. To create such a site, the subject of the website is determined first. Afterwards, search terms related to thesubject of the web site are entered to conduct searches on the Internetfor information relevant to the web site. The search results are used topopulate databases for this web site. After the web site is created andlaunched, users of the site can contribute to the content of the site.User contribution of additional content to a web site keeps the web siteupdated and interesting to all users of the site. Further, searching onInternet sites is configured to continuously add content that is new andrelevant to the web site. In addition, active users of the web site canengage in basic administration of the site, which reduces the need ofintervention by paid administrators. Thus, by obtaining content fromInternet sites, coupled with contributions made by users, it is possibleto automatically create and maintain new custom created sites withminimal intervention by paid administrators.

With the above embodiments in mind, it should be understood that theinvention might employ various computer-implemented operations involvingdata stored in computer systems. These operations are those requiringphysical manipulation of physical quantities. Usually, though notnecessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magneticsignals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, andotherwise manipulated. Further, the manipulations performed are oftenreferred to in terms, such as producing, identifying, determining, orcomparing.

The invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on acomputer readable medium. The computer readable medium is any datastorage device that can store data, which can be thereafter read by acomputer system. The computer readable medium may also include anelectromagnetic carrier wave in which the computer code is embodied.Examples of the computer readable medium include hard drives, networkattached storage (NAS), read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs,CD-Rs, CD-RWs, magnetic tapes, and other optical and non-optical datastorage devices. The computer readable medium can also be distributedover a network coupled computer system so that the computer readablecode is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.

Any of the operations described herein that form part of the inventionare useful machine operations. The invention also relates to a device oran apparatus for performing these operations. The apparatus may bespecially constructed for the required purposes, or it may be ageneral-purpose computer selectively activated or configured by acomputer program stored in the computer. In particular, variousgeneral-purpose machines may be used with computer programs written inaccordance with the teachings herein, or it may be more convenient toconstruct a more specialized apparatus to perform the requiredoperations.

The above-described invention may be practiced with other computersystem configurations including hand-held devices, microprocessorsystems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics,minicomputers, mainframe computers and the like. Although the foregoinginvention has been described in some detail for purposes of clarity ofunderstanding, it will be apparent that certain changes andmodifications may be practiced within the scope of the appended claims.Accordingly, the present embodiments are to be considered asillustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limitedto the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope andequivalents of the appended claims. In the claims, elements and/or stepsdo not imply any particular order of operation, unless explicitly statedin the claims.

1. A method for automatically generating a hard association of an objectwith a tag term entered by users for the object of a web site,comprising: receiving tag terms entered by users for objects of the website and placing the received tag terms with corresponding objects in atleast one database; determining a criteria of hard association forobjects to establish hard associations with tag terms entered for thecorresponding objects; processing data in the at least one database ofthe web site to identify an object and a corresponding tag term thatpass the criteria of hard association; and automatically creating adatabase to store the identified object and the corresponding tag termsthat pass the criteria of hard association.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the corresponding tag terms entered by users describe thecontent of the objects.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteriaof hard association includes a number of users entering a particularcorresponding tag term for an object.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinthe criteria of hard association includes a percentage of users enteringa particular corresponding tag term for an object.
 5. The method ofclaim 4, wherein the percentage of users entering a particularcorresponding tag term for the object is greater than or equal to 30%.6. The method of claim 1, wherein the objects can be photos, musicpieces, videos, user comments, discussion boards and blogs, andtext-based description.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the objectthat passes the criteria of hard association is weighted more duringselection of objects to display in a prominent location of a web page ofthe web site and is more likely to be selected.
 8. The method of claim7, wherein a weight assigned to the object correlates to a number ofusers, or a percentage of users entering the corresponding tag term, ora combination of both.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein theautomatically created database includes a column of objectidentification, a column of corresponding tag term for the object, acolumn of a number of users entering the corresponding tag term for theobject, and a column of a percentage of users who enter a particularcorresponding tag term for the object.
 10. A method for automaticallyestablishing a hard association between two objects through a common tagterm and displaying the hard association of the two objects in a webpage of a web site, comprising: processing data in at least one databasestoring objects having hard associations with corresponding tag terms toidentify the two objects that have hard associations with the common tagterm and to define a hard association between the two identifiedobjects; and automatically creating a database to store the twoidentified objects and the common tag term, wherein when one of the twoidentified objects is selected for displaying on a web page of the website, a link to the other object is displayed along with the objectselected.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the database has a columnof objection identification of one of the two objects and a column ofobject identification for the other object.
 12. The method of claim 11,wherein the database further includes a column of tag term that the twoidentified objects have hard associations.
 13. The method of claim 10,wherein the two objects can be photos, music pieces, videos, usercomments, discussion boards and blogs, and text-based description. 14.The method of claim 10, wherein the hard associations of the objectshaving hard associations with the corresponding tag terms are definedwhen a minimal number of users or a minimal percentage of users whoenter the corresponding tag terms for the objects.
 15. A system forautomatically creating hard associations of objects with correspondingtag terms entered by users for the object of a web site, comprising: atleast a server for storing objects in the web site; a server with analgorithm for collecting tag terms entered by users for objects in theweb site. a server for storing databases of hard associations of objectswith corresponding tag terms entered by users; and a server for storingalgorithm of automatically creating hard associations between theobjects with the corresponding tag terms.
 16. The system of claim 15,wherein the hard associations of the objects having hard associationswith the corresponding tag terms are defined when a minimal number ofusers, or a minimal percentage of users who enter the corresponding tagterms for the objects, a combination of a minimal number of users and aminimal percentage of users who enter the corresponding tag terms forthe objects.
 17. The system of claim 15, wherein the server for storingdatabases of hard associations of objects further includes databases ofobjects having hard associations by having common tag terms, and whereinthe objects and the common tag terms have hard associations.
 18. Thesystem of claim 15, wherein the server for algorithm of automaticallycreating hard associations between the objects with the correspondingtag terms also include an algorithm for assigning weights to the objectshaving hard associations with the corresponding tag terms.
 19. Thesystem of claim 18, wherein the server for storing databases of hardassociations of objects include at least a database for storing weightsassigned to the objects.
 20. The system of claim 15, wherein the systemcan be used to select objects to display in a prominent location of aweb page of the web site.